What Ferguson has achieved here is an extremely impressive balancing act: while his explanations are clear-eyed and accurate, he’s never content to simply tell us what happened. He also takes pains to constantly remind us that people did this and that nearly all of them are still relaxing in plutocratic comfort even as millions of workers in America and around the world have seen their lives destroyed by the effects of the crisis.

[…]

A great Pixar movie manages to do two things at once: it entertains and delights the kids, while also giving their parents a fresh view of life with a remarkably adult perspective. Inside Job is similar, in a way: if you don’t really understand what happened during the financial crisis, it will explain that to you very clearly. If you do know what happened during the financial crisis, however, it will do something else: it will rekindle the anger and dudgeon that you might well have lost over the past three years of being buried in the financial weeds.

One shining example of success is Norway’s SWF (oljefondet). The professionalism and expertise of both the Ministry of Finance Asset Management Department, which oversees the SWF, and the fund’s manager, NBIM, are outstanding and this is reflected in the excellent financial performance, low costs, and attention to investment management issues of special concern to Norway, such as ethical investing, corporate governance, and social issues.